Pests and diseases

Rhinoceros beetle

కొమ్ము పురుగు

Insects and mites

The advice below comes from each crop's guide — every item shows its source, region and date. It is pending expert review; ask your local officer whether it suits your area.

Coconut

  • Rhinoceros beetle and red palm weevil: clean-garden measures

    Rhinoceros beetle: remove and burn dead palms; collect and destroy beetle stages from manure pits whenever manure is lifted; add the fungus Metarhizium anisopliae to manure pits; keep mud pots with castor cake (1 kg in 5 litres of water) to attract and kill adults; hook out adults from the crown at every harvest. Red palm weevil: remove and burn wilting or damaged palms, avoid wounds on the stem and fill stem holes with cement; avoid cutting green leaves, or cut them about 120 cm away from the stem.

    Pending expert review
    Source
    Crop Production Guide – Horticulture Crops 2020 (Directorate of Horticulture and Plantation Crops, Tamil Nadu & Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU)), Coconut – Pest management (rhinoceros beetle, red palm weevil), pp. 215–218
    Region
    Tamil Nadu
    Last updated
    2026-11-05

Oil palm

  • Pests and diseases: non-chemical measures in the source

    Rhinoceros beetle: trap adults with fermented castor cake or pheromone baits; use the bio-agents Baculovirus oryctes and Metarhizium anisopliae. Red palm weevil: remove damaged and rotten bunches, apply tar to wounds and cuts on the stem, and trap adults with pheromone baits. Basal stem rot: remove and destroy diseased palms and apply 5 kg neem cake per tree per year. Chemical treatments for the compost pit, bud rot and basal stem rot are also listed — ask your officer.

    Pending expert review
    Source
    Crop Production Guide – Horticulture Crops 2020 (Directorate of Horticulture and Plantation Crops, Tamil Nadu & Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU)), Oil Palm – Plant protection, p. 227
    Region
    Tamil Nadu
    Last updated
    2026-11-05